BANGKOK – Hollywood and Hong Kong film crews ranked first among foreign film productions that chose Thailand as a destination for filming last year, with a total revenue of more than 6.6 billion baht in 2023.
Minister of Tourism and Sports Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol posted on Saturday on her personal Facebook page with the hashtag #NewRecord, sharing statistics on the record-breaking number of foreign film productions in Thailand in 2023.
A total of 466 foreign film productions from 40 countries filmed in Thailand, generating an estimated revenue of over 6.6 billion baht. This is the highest revenue generated by foreign film productions in Thailand since the country began promoting the industry. The data was current as of December 31, 2023.
Meg 2: The Trenches
According to the statistics, the United States was the most important source of foreign film crews, with 34 productions bringing in over 3.1 billion baht. Hong Kong was in second place with 10 productions that brought in 707 million baht. China, Germany and South Korea were the next three top sources.
The top 10 provinces in Thailand with the most foreign film productions in 2023 were:
Bangkok (282 productions), with filming locations such as Wat Arun, Hua Lamphong railway station, and King Power Mahanakhon tower.
Chonburi (77 productions), with filming locations such as Pattaya Beach, Koh Larn, and Koh Sichang.
Samut Prakan (60 productions), with filming locations such as Muang Boran, The Studio Park, and Soopanava Pier.
Pathum Thani (52 productions), with filming locations such as ACTS Studio, Bangkok University, and Rangsit University.
Phuket (47 productions), with filming locations such as Paradise Beach, Phuket Old Town, and the Phuket Big Buddha
Nonthaburi (41 productions), with filming locations such as Impact Arena, Bond Street, and Muang Thong Thani.
Chiang Mai (39 productions), with filming locations such as Mae Kampong village, Mae Sa Elephant Camp, and Doi Inthanon National Park.
Nakhon Pathom (27 productions), with filming locations such as Don Wai Floating Market, Movie O Town, and Mahidol University, Salaya.
Krabi (26 productions), with filming locations such as Phra Nang Beach, Ton Sai Beach, and Railay Bay.
Ratchaburi (25 productions), with filming locations such as Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Khao Hin Ngu National Park, and Khao Chong Pran Temple.
PHUKET – Patong Police Station in Phuket Province detained a 23-year-old Spanish suspect who stole a Mongolian tourist’s smartphone and cash at Patong nightlife venue at 3 a.m. on January 7.
Miss Zaya, a Mongolian national, arrived to Patong Police Station to report that her iPhone 14 Pro, purple, a bag, cash, approximately 10,000 baht, and a hotel key had been stolen. A foreign man picked up her possessions, which were placed on a chair inside the Illuzion Phuket bar restaurant in Soi Bangla, Patong Subdistrict, Kathu District.
When the police examined the CCTV footage captured inside the restaurant, they saw a clear image of a foreign male stealing a Mongolian woman’s possessions. As a result, they swiftly pursued and apprehended the suspect in front of the Bangla police booth on Thaweewong Road.
The Spanish man was transported to Patong Police Station. Along with the evidence were the stolen items. He was charged with “theft at night.”
Police officers rescue a woman from a collapsed house in Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (Metropolitan Police Department/Kyodo News via AP)
WAJIMA, Japan (AP) — A woman in her 90s was pulled alive from a collapsed house in western Japan late Saturday, 124 hours after a major quake slammed the region, killing at least 126 people, toppling buildings and setting off landslides.
The woman in Suzu city, Ishikawa Prefecture, had survived for more than five days after the 7.6 magnitude quake that hit the area Monday. Nationally broadcast news footage showed helmeted rescue workers covering the view of the area with blue plastic, and the woman was not visible.
Chances for survival diminish after the first 72 hours. Several other dramatic rescues have been reported over the past few days as soldiers, firefighters and others joined a widespread effort.
Among the 126 dead was a 5-year-old boy who had been recovering from injuries he suffered when boiling water spilled on him during Monday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake. His condition suddenly worsened and he died Friday, according to Ishikawa prefecture, the hardest-hit region.
Rescue teams worked through snow to deliver supplies to isolated hamlets. Heavy snowfall expected in Ishikawa Prefecture later Sunday and through the night added to the urgency.
Snow falls as police officers continue a search operation around a burnt market in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. A major earthquake slammed western Japan on Jan. 1, killing scores of people, toppling buildings and setting off landslides. (Kyodo News via AP)
After Monday’s 7.6 magnitude temblor, 222 people were still unaccounted for, and 560 people were injured. Hundreds of aftershocks have followed, rattling Noto Peninsula, where the quakes are centered.
Taiyo Matsushita walked three hours through mud to reach a supermarket in Wajima city to buy food and other supplies for his family. The home where he lives with his wife and four children, and about 20 nearby homes, are among the more than a dozen communities cut off by landslides.
Power was out, and in a matter of hours, they couldn’t even use their cell phones, he told Jiji Press.
“We want everyone to know help isn’t coming to some places,” Matsushita was quoted as saying by Jiji Press. “We feel such an attachment to this community. But when I think about my children, it’s hard to imagine we can keep living here.”
Ishikawa officials say 1,370 homes were completely or partially destroyed. Many of the houses in that western coastal region of the main island are aging and wooden. Cars lay tossed on cracked, bumpy roads. Snow blanketed the debris and highways. Wires dangled from lopsided poles.
The more than 30,000 people who evacuated to schools, auditoriums and community facilities slept on cold floors. They trembled in fear through the aftershocks. They prayed their missing loved ones were safe. Others cried softly for those who had died.
Some people were living out of their cars, and long lines formed at gas stations. Food and water supplies were short. Worries grew about snow and rainfall, which raise the risk of mudslides and further damage, as snow collecting on roofs can flatten barely standing homes.
A fire that raged for hours gutted a major part of Wajima, and a tsunami swept through homes, sucking cars down into muddy waters.
Wajima city has recorded the highest number of deaths with 69, followed by Suzu with 38. More than 500 people were injured, at least 27 of them seriously.
In this photo provided by Japanese Ministry of Defense, members of Japan Self-Defense Forces carry relief goods in Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024. (Japanese Ministry of Defense via AP)
The temblors left roofs sitting haplessly on roads and everything beneath them crushed flat. Roads were warped like rubber. A fire turned a neighborhood in Wajima to ashes.
More than 200 people were still unaccounted-for, although the number has fluctuated. Eleven people were reported trapped under two homes that collapsed in Anamizu.
For Shiro Kokuda, 76, the house in Wajima where he grew up was spared but a nearby temple went up in flames and he was still looking for his friends at evacuation centers.
“It’s been really tough,” he said.
Japan is one of the fastest-aging societies in the world. The population in Ishikawa and nearby areas has dwindled over the years. A fragile economy centered on crafts and tourism is now more imperiled than ever.
Snow falls as a search operation is continued at a burnt market in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)
In an unusual gesture from nearby North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of condolence to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.
Japan received messages earlier expressing sympathy and promises of aid from United States President Joe Biden and other allies.
Japanese government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters that Japan was grateful for all the messages, including the one from North Korea. Hayashi said the last time Japan received a condolence message from North Korea for a disaster was in 1995.
Health minister Cholanan Srikaew and public health officials pose with children at an event to boost the birth rate on Nov. 15, 2023.
The government is pushing for a new national agenda: trying to convince and incentivize more Thais to procreate. In the words of Health Department Director General Atchara Nitiapinyasakul warns on Saturday Thais need to have more babies or there will be a shortage of workers and taxpayers six decades from now.
She said in 2022, for the first time, more Thais died than were born: 500,000 versus 480,000. And if the trend continues, the Thai population will decrease from 65 to 63 million six decades from now, with 18 million being elderly people versus 14 million working-age population.
Giving a talk in Phetchabun province, she went on to tell the audience to imagine having no Thai pilots, flight attendants at the airport or doctors at hospital. Thailand, she adds, can either follow the Singaporean way by importing more migrant workers, she said, as many Singaporeans no longer want to have babies and their government has failed to convince them otherwise, or go the Swedish way which has been successful in encouraging more procreation among Swedes over the past decade through various incentives.
She is not alone. Public Health Minister Cholnan Srikaew and the government are fully behind the new policy. While details have yet to be announced as to what are the measures and incentives to be given in an attempt to reverse the population decrease, the government would do well to ask themselves why many Thais now no longer want to have children, or more children, and seriously question the need to continue to have population growth given the world’s dwindling natural resources.
The obvious answer as to why more Thai couples are apprehensive is that it is prohibitive to have a child and ensure that the boy or girl gets a good quality of life and education. One of my acquaintances is a well-known academic at Chulalongkorn University. His wife also teaches at a top university. The father wants to make sure his daughter gets the best education in Thailand and thus sends her to a leading international school. Its tuition fees are almost that of what a middle-class Thai earns in a year, and he has to do extra work in order to make sure his daughter can continue her education there.
The truth is, if you are a working class, or even a middle class, daily existence is hard enough, why bother having children if you are not confident you can guarantee them a decent childhood, quality education and a reasonable prospect for a bright future?
Even for those better off, we hear countless stories of failed child rearing, spoiled kids, and worse. The government, if it truly thinks a bigger and younger population is needed, might want to reconsider its immigration policy and make it more accommodating for young foreigners, both blue and white collar, to come to Thailand, work here and have a reasonable chance for becoming naturalized Thai if they choose to.
Learn from Singapore where some veterinarians are from Spain or France, condo receptionists from the Philippines and more. Sure, the income level is miserably lower here in Thailand than that of Singapore’s, but we can definitely learn from them and from other countries which have successfully taken in and integrated migrant workers and expats.
Instead, the estimated one to two million migrant workers in Bangkok are made invisible, treated as if they do not exist instead of leaving the doors open for a permanent assimilation and make them feel at home.
In the final analysis, does Thailand need perpetual population growth? Is it really a good thing for Thailand, the environment and the world? How about extending the retirement age to 65 or even 70 for many professions (and make it optional) so some people can pay taxes a little longer.
As it is, Thailand, particularly Bangkok, is crowded enough. Perhaps a smaller population is in fact more desirable and better in terms of quality of life and the environment. Most of Thailand is nowhere near being like a small town in Quebec where they desperately have to take in migrant workers from faraway land to make sure the town does not cease to function.
The Thai woman had an argument with her 40-year-old New Zealand boyfriend at the pool.
PHUKET – The Phuket Province’s Patong Police Station has cordoned off the rooftop swimming pool of the One World One Home Patong 2 Hotel in order to investigate the death of a 33-year-old Thai woman from Phetchabun Province.
According to the preliminary inquiry, Ms. Chatchaya had a quarrel with Mr. Hamish, her 40-year-old New Zealand boyfriend, at the pool around 1:40 p.m. on January 6. Following that, this man carried Ms. Chatchaya, who was unconscious, downstairs and asked the hotel staff to call an ambulance. They instantly contacted rescue workers from the Kusontham Foundation, who arrived to transport the woman to the hospital.
Patong Police Station has cordoned off the rooftop swimming pool of the Patong’s hotel.The room of the New Zealand man is also condoned off.
Mr. Hamish went back up to have a shower and returned to notify the hotel personnel that he would visit his girlfriend at Patong Hospital to check on her condition. That time was almost half an hour after the incident occurred.
About 2:00 p.m., Patong Hospital notified the Patong Police Station’s radio centre that the Thai woman has died.
The official then phoned staff in hotels to restrict access to the swimming pool and Mr. Hamish’s room; no one is permitted to enter those areas. Following that, Phuket Province police arrived to inspect the evidence and question the people involved in order to determine the cause of the Thai woman’s death.
A view of Laukkaing city in Shan state, Myanmar, Nov. 20, 2023. (Kyaw Ko Lin via AP)
Grant Peck, BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military government has acknowledged that it withdrew its forces from a key city on the northeastern border with China after it was taken over by an alliance of ethnic armed groups it has been battling for months.
The fall of Laukkaing late Thursday is the biggest in a series of defeats suffered by Myanmar’s military government since the ethnic alliance launched an offensive Oct. 27. It underlines the pressure the government is under as it battles pro-democracy guerrillas in the wake of a 2021 military takeover as well as ethnic minority armed groups across the country.
Ethnic armed organizations have battled for greater autonomy for decades, but Myanmar has been wracked by what amounts to civil war since the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking nationwide armed resistance by pro-democracy forces.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance that took Laukkaing is composed of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army. The MNDAA is a military force of the Kokang minority, who are ethnic Chinese.
Photos and videos on social media showed a vast amount of weapons that the alliance claimed to have captured.
FILE – Myanmar military officers leave the venue during a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
Laukkaing is the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, which is geographically part of northern Shan state in Myanmar.
Myanmar government spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told the Popular News Journal, a pro-army website, on Saturday that the military and its local commanders relinquished control of Laukkaing after considering many aspects, including the safety of the family members of the soldiers stationed there.
He said the military also took into consideration Myanmar’s relationship with China, which is just across the border from Laukkaing. China, which has good relations with both the military and the ethnic alliance, has been seeking an end to the fighting.
Beijing protested after artillery shells landed in its territory on Wednesday, wounding five people. Zaw Min Tun said the alliance had fired the shells and that it tried to blame the military in order to damage its relationship with China.
A statement posted by the alliance on social media late Friday declared that the entire Kokang region had become a “Military Council-free area,” referring to Myanmar’s ruling junta,
It said 2,389 military personnel — including six brigadier generals — and their family members had surrendered by Friday and that all were evacuated to safety.
A view of Laukkaing city in Shan state, Myanmar, Nov. 20, 2023. (Kyaw Ko Lin via AP)
Video clips circulating on social media purportedly showed the soldiers and their family members being transported in various vehicles. The Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, an online news site reporting from Shan state, reported that many of them were taken to Lashio, the capital of Shan’s northern region, under an agreement with the MNDAA for their repatriation.
It’s unclear whether the Three Brotherhood Alliance will try to extend its offensive outside of Shan state, but it has vowed to keep fighting against military rule.
The alliance cast its offensive as a struggle against military rule and an effort to rid the region of major organized criminal enterprises. China has publicly sought to eradicate cyberscam operations in Laukkaing that have entrapped tens of thousands of Chinese nationals, who have been repatriated to China in recent weeks.
But the offensive was also widely recognized as an effort by the MNDAA to regain control of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone by ousting a rival Kokang group backed by the military government from its seat of power.
Peng Deren, the MNDAA commander, said in a New Year’s speech published by The Kokang, an affiliated online media site, that the alliance had seized over 250 military targets and five border crossings with China. He said more than 300 cyberscam centers were raided and more than 40,000 Chinese involved in the operations were repatriated.
PATTAYA – Residents in Pattaya complained about a foreign man riding a large motorcycle with a loud noise in the parking lot of the FlowerLand, Soi Siam Country Club, every night for 2-3 hours. It has been disturbing them for about a week.
The Khaosod reporter then proceeded to this location to film the foreign man riding a motorbike and contacted the police at Nong Prue Police Station in Chonburi Province. On January 5, police Lieutenant Colonel Chanchai and Sa-nguansaksri went to inspect immediately.
The lights in the Flowerland parking lot were dim enough for the officers to see a foreigner on a big black bike driving around in circles. The cops then stopped over and asked the man to accompany them to the police station.
Mr. Wayim, a 32-year-old Russian accepted that he frequently came to ride his big bike at that time of night, intending to exercise in a safe area and not realising that people lived nearby.
“I feel guilty and apologise to everyone who was in trouble,” he went on to say. After that, the officer issued a warning. that he will be prosecuted if this sort of behaviour continues.
BANGKOK – Tourism agencies believe the permanent visa-free measure will bring 8 million Chinese tourists back to Thailand, or a 75 percent recovery rate from before the 2019 pandemic.
They have welcomed the lifting of visa requirements for holders of ordinary Thai passports and semi-official passports, as well as ordinary Chinese passports, under an agreement between the Thai and Chinese governments that will come into effect on March 1, 2024.
Thapanee Kiatphaibool, governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said the policy will facilitate travel and greatly benefit tourism between Thais and Chinese. It will lead to an increase in flights between the two countries, which will reduce airfares that have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. This will encourage more travel and cause tourists to spread to new groups and areas, especially in China’s second-tier cities.
Koh Larn, Pattaya
TAT has also signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) on tourism cooperation with eight leading Chinese companies and partnered with Chinese airlines to accelerate the restoration of confidence, develop the Thai tourism industry in all aspects and cater to the potential Chinese tourist group.
“We have also partnered with iQIYI, a Chinese streaming platform, to use locations in Thailand for movies and series, which will attract Chinese people to travel to Thailand,” she said.
The governor of TAT also stated that she is not concerned that visa-free travel between Thailand and China will result in more Thais visiting China because China has a population of 1.4 billion people, giving Thailand additional opportunity to expand the number of tourists.
Wat Arun, Bangkok
Keerati Kitmanawat, president of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT), said AOT is currently preparing the airports for the traffic of Chinese and Thai travelers who will travel back and forth between the two countries. AOT also provides facilities and manages services at the airports efficiently.
The AOT estimates that more than 8 million Chinese tourists will enter Thailand during the visa-free period in 2024, a 75 percent recovery from 2019, when 11.1 million Chinese tourists came to Thailand.
AOT will work with TAT to launch campaigns to attract tourists and airlines to increase demand for travel to Thailand. AOT also has a performance-based incentive scheme at its six airports, which is another way to attract airlines.
At the same time, AOT will support airlines operating international scheduled flights as well as special flights and unscheduled or charter flights, in addition to the number of flights of its own airlines authorized in their schedules as of September 8, 2023.
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who is in Beijing for the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and an official visit, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 19, 2023. (Thai Government House)
Thai government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke said that after news reports about the permanent visa-free measure for Chinese tourists, in just 1 hour, the number of searches for the word Thailand on the platform of Ctrip Group, a travel service provider, increased by more than 90%, and searches for flights on the Shanghai-Bangkok and Beijing-Bangkok routes increased by more than 40%. In addition, travel bookings to Thailand between January 2, 2024, and Chinese New Year. increased more than 10 times.
The visa exemption will increase the number of flights between the two nations, lowering airfares and helping boost Chinese visitors to meet the year-end target, he added.
The suspect gave 300,000 baht to Mr. Yu at the Pattaya City Police Station on January 5, 2024.
PATTAYA – The transgender thief who stole a Chinese tourist’s necklace on Christmas was caught by Pattaya Tourist Police. She agreed to repay the visitor 300,000 baht.
Tourist police officers together with police officers from Pattaya Police Station brought in Wichai Chueprasong, a 29-year-old transgender woman accused of stealing a Chinese tourist, and returned 300,000 baht to the Chinese tourist on January 5.
Mr. Yu, age 36, was grabbed by Wichai at 3:00 a.m. on December 25, 2023. She pretended to talk to him and hugged him near the roadside of Wat Chai Mongkol intersection, Sai 2, Nong Subdistrict, Prue, Bang Lamung District, Chonburi Province, before taking off a gold necklace weighing 100 grammes and costing approximately 300,000 baht and walking away, without Mr. Yu noticing.
When a Chinese tourist discovered that his necklace had been taken, he went to the police station to connect with the Chinese Embassy to notify the Pattaya Tourist Police to assist in tracking down the offender.
Tourist police officials and Pattaya City Police Station examined the CCTV cameras and investigated the tracks until they discovered that the thief was Mr. Wichai, whose address was listed on his ID card as Nong Hin District, Loei Province. The police gathered evidence and applied to the Pattaya Provincial Court for an arrest warrant dated January 4, 2024.
The suspect fled the scene after stealing a Chinese visitor’s gold necklace, according to CCTV footage.
Then, on January 5, police located and detained Wichai. She admitted to stealing the Chinese’s necklace and offered to compensate for damages based on the worth of the item in the amount of 300,000 baht, with the Chinese visitor agreeing to accept it. As a result, the money was given to Mr. Yu at the Pattaya City Police Station.
The police then charged Wichai with “theft at night by using a vehicle to facilitate the commission of an offence or taking that property away and to avoid arrest.”
FILE - Actor David Soul arrives for the UK premiere of Starsky & Hutch at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square, central London, March 11, 2004. (Yui Mok/PA via AP, File)
LONDON (AP) — Actor-singer David Soul, a 1970s heartthrob who co-starred as the blond half of the crime-fighting duo “Starsky & Hutch” and topped the music charts with the ballad “Don’t Give Up on Us,” has died at the age of 80.
His wife, Helen Snell, said Friday that “David Soul – beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother – died yesterday after a valiant battle for life in the loving company of family.”
“He shared many extraordinary gifts in the world as actor, singer, storyteller, creative artist and dear friend,” Snell said in a statement. “His smile, laughter and passion for life will be remembered by the many whose lives he has touched.”
Born David Solberg, Soul was a Chicago native whose acting career dated back to the 1960s, when he joined the avant-garde Firehouse Theater in Minnesota. He continued to appear on stage and screen well into the 20th century, but he was best known for his work in the 1970s.
FILE- David Soul is photographed at an event in Los Angeles, Dec. 6, 1983. (AP Photo/Wally Fong, File)
Soul portrayed detective Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson alongside dark-haired Paul Michael Glaser as detective David Starsky in “Starsky & Hutch, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979 and grew so popular it spawned a line of children’s toys.
He also had success as a singer, starting in 1976 with “Don’t Give Up on Us” and following with such hits as “Going in With My Eyes Open” and “Silver Lady.”
Soul first gained national fame in the 1960s appearing on “The Merv Griffin Show” as “The Covered Man,” a singer disguised in a stocking cap who shouted out lyrics such as “That is why I hide my face, because a man has to be free.”
His other TV credits included early appearances on “Star Trek,” “All in the Family” and “”I Dream of Jeannie,” the miniseries “Salem’s Lot” and a short-lived version of the film classic “Casablanca,” in which Soul took on Humphrey Bogart’s role as nightclub owner Rick Blaine.
Soul’s movies included “Magnum Force,” “The Hanoi Hilton” and a cameo with Glaser in the 2004 big-screen remake of “Starsky & Hutch,” starring Ben Stiller as Starsky and Owen Wilson as Hutch.
FILE – David Soul, left, Paul Michael Glaser, and Antonio Fargas, right, stars of the original 1970’s “Starsky and Hutch” television series, arrive at the British premiere of the new movie of the same name based on the TV series, in London, Thursday March 11, 2004. (AP Photo/John D McHugh, File)
By the 1990s, Soul had moved to Britain, where he performed several stage roles. In 2001, he won a libel case against a journalist who called “The Dead Monkey,” a play that Soul was in, the worst production he had ever seen – without having seen it. He also played the titular talk-show host in “Jerry Springer – The Opera” in London’s West End.
